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The Race of Champions is coming to DRIVE this Saturday
and Sunday from Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
101 racing eliminations to pick the champion of champions
and the Best Nations cup team.
And who will be here to call the race action?
Well a real racer announcer guy, Tommy Kendall, will join
me here in the studio.
You know Tommy as the SRT Viper factory [INAUDIBLE].
He's defender and sports car race winner and champion
through the late '80s and '90s and went to the US version of
Race of Champions--
what we in the US used to call the International Race of
Champions-- he went six freaking times.
So who better to give us perspective when champions get
together to race.
Plus, he said he's got some great Dale Earnhardt, Sr.,
side stories.
John Hindhaugh, the voice of American Le Mans and Radio Le
Mans, will be in Bangkok.
And if you follow the Facebook and Twitters, he's there with
JF Musial to provide us with insight, interviews, and
apparently the required in racing UK accent.
So it sounds like we're a legitimate
motor racing broadcast.
My stiff upper lip is already hurting.
To recap, Kendall to call the racing, Hindhaugh interviews
the drivers, JF in Thailand, and the closest I get is the
chance to order Thai take-out food here in New York City.
Yeah, that seems right.
So what are you and I going to watch?
Well the Race of Champions is, as the name says, all-star
racers from various racing denominations battling to be
number one among the 16 competing.
And that's Sunday.
And already the headline pairings that we're waiting
for are great.
World Champion from F1, Vettel, against World Champion
MotoGP Lorenzo.
And before you type the comment--
Alonso not there?
WTF--
this year he's not here, but he was there in 2001, and
helped Spain win it's only ROC Nations Cup.
Besides, Fernando is busy in Italy shotgunning Grappa and
Red Bull with the Ferrari designers, urging them to
slipstream the F1 design rules to be more like Red Bull.
OK, ROC, back to that.
How about the next big face off.
Seven time World Champion, Schumacher, going up against
our IndyCar Champion, American, Ryan Hunter-Reay,
who's won races in each of our open-wheel formula--
cart, champ car, IRL IndyCar--
which actually says less about Ryan and more about how F'ed
up open-wheel racing has been.
And let's start the rumor right now--
Schumi to IndyCar in 2013.
Back to ROC.
On Saturday it's Nation Cup time.
The eight, two-driver teams fighting to unseat Germany,
who won the damn thing the last five years, thanks to the
Schumacher and Vettel team.
No that's not them, that's them.
Is he still called Little Schumi?
In total, the list of drivers that Race of Champions is
going to bring you will bring us a bunch of stories.
In addition to the guys I've mentioned, add in, Sebastian
Ogier, last year's ROC's defending champion.
He was a WRC teammate to Sebastian Loeb, now he's
headed to the VW WRC team.
Tom Kristensen, the Audi R18 ace, with more Le Mans
victories than I've had second dates.
No, the number is not one.
Tom has won eight Le Mans.
And in ROC, he's one of the six racers with ROC
experience, helped Team Scandinavia win the 2005
Nations Cup, and has been in the ROC individual finals more
than a few times, last year as well.
Is Tom Kristensen due?
How about Jamie Whincup, four time, and 2012 [INAUDIBLE]
V8 Supercars Champion, but an ROC rookie.
Still, he's somebody that knows how to toss a car.
Plus a host of other racers--
ROC vet, David Coulthard.
Romain Grosjean, Mick Doohan for Team Australia.
Andy Priaulx, another ROC vet.
WRC Production Car Series Champion, Benito Guerra from
Mexico, Hunter-Reay's Team America's teammate.
Plus the winners of the Team Thailand and Team Asia ROC
races that will happen today, Friday.
And what are these guys going to race?
Well, not the Audi Quarto rally car that does the
ceremonial first laps.
That car represents the roots of ROC as it started in 1988,
because that was an event for rally drivers only.
And because the car also pays homage to one of the founders
of ROC, Michele Mouton who raced and won with Audi, and
who I suspect can still kick the ass of at least eight of
the 16, 2012 ROC racers.
A bit of ROC history.
This is the 25th anniversary of the event that ran first
outdoors, spent a decade of years in the Canary Islands,
and eventually became the multi-racing, disciplined,
stadium event we now have.
Now there are seven cars that the boys will race, each car
only going against itself.
They change cars each race.
Front-wheel drive with four push-to-pass push per race
turbo boost buttons, that's the VW Scirocco.
Rear-wheel drive starting with the Audi R8, to something
NASCAR-like called the World Eurocar, to the
X-Bow, to the ROC buggy.
Four-wheel drive with 570 horsepower in the new to the
ROC, Lamborghini Gallardo.
And all the way down to 197 horsepower, that's the also
new to the ROC, Toyota GT86.
And how about the track.
Well it looks like two tracks, but it's actually one.
You pass the start/finish four times, only two count to count
the race laps.
It's 700 meters long, 0.43 miles which is shorter than
Schumacher's mansion driveway.
Now I have got to believe this is all about low gears, a lot
of turn-in, power down, and precision.
Or maybe it is just toss the thing like a Frisbee and see
how it catches.
I'll be asking Tommy Kendall those types of questions and
listening to Hindhaugh's interviews.
For the Nation's Cup two groups align.
The eight, two-driver nation teams.
Each driver goes against the opposing team driver.
If the score is tied one to one, the winning racer from
each team goes into a playoff.
The groups are set such that I bet we're going to see Germany
versus the obvious rivals like the UK,
France, or the Americas.
And how about the team all-stars,
Kristensen and Lorenzo.
I'm not going to ignore them.
They could be winners.
For the individual Race of Champions, drivers are split
into four groups for the first stage.
The top two racers advance through the next knockoff
stages to get to the two finalists and the race for the
champion of champions.
You've got one day in the comments to voice your opinion
on who's the favorite, who's you're winning choice, and
who's going to give us the best show.
And on our two days of coverage, we'll try to address
real hard the things that'll make it more interesting to
watch ROC with DRIVE.
Like, really hearing what the drivers say about how the cars
work, and how the track needs to be driven.
And who's doing the head games and who's
super cool as a racer.
How and when the cars are prepared, where they are
stored, who did the car equalization testing, and how
do they get that equalization accomplished.
Rules details like can change the car's setup, tire
pressures, or stage the car off center to get a better run
at turn one.
And who's running traction control, and who's turning it
off, and stuff like that.
And who the hell those people riding in the
cars with the champions.
Are they weight balanced, or is it just Schumi running
around picking the littlest ones for himself.
And who's more motivated, Vettel to prove that he can
win without Adrian Newey.
Schumi to say, I'm not dead yet.
Grosjean hunting for redemption.
Kristensen to finally get the ROC individual title he
deserves, Ogier to defend, or Lorenzo to say screw you to
four wheelers.
Whatever, it's all good.
So tune in to DRIVE Saturday and Sunday at 7:00 PM eastern
for the Race of Champions from Bangkok, Thailand, Ra-ja-med--
Ra-ja-ma-lang--
oh damn it, from the I'll mangle that name all night
long stadium.
You know what Ian, just play the video.
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